Exploring Consciousness from the Inside
The MIT Press eBooks December 16, 2025 DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/14600.003.0007 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Buddhism Meditation |
| Keywords | Consciousness Jungle Relation database Psychology of self Aesthetics Epistemology Jungian analytical psychology |
| Key points | Proposes that consciousness arises dependently on sense data and has no self-existence, and that liberated awareness emerges through continuous practice and daily life integration. |
Abstract
Exploring Consciousness from the InsideStephen FulderConsciousness arises dependent on sense data and stimulation of the senses.Therefore it is dependent and has no self-existence.-Anguttara Nikaya 41:7 (Bodhi, 2012) Personal ReflectionsI have been interested in spiritual practice and inner exploration for most of my life.I can remember as a child, realizing that, like Mowgli in The Jungle Book, I am a par tic u lar being because of conditioning, and so all real ity can only be assumed and co-created.This led to years in India and a fascination with the huge possibilities available in Buddhist inspired practices, both meditative and in relation to a wise and wholesome, caring life.Over the years I have been exploring what a liberated awareness is like and what are its sources and how it emerges in daily life experience, whether teaching retreats (up to now hundreds of retreats!) in peace work with Palestinians and Israelis, within the family and grandfathering, or in digging the vegetable garden.For me it has not been an ecstatic roller-coaster, but rather a continuous and steady sense of merging with the totality and letting the universe see itself through my eyes.